scholarly journals Alliance Building among Environmental Nongovernmental Organizations in China: The Emergence and Evolution of the Zero Waste Alliance

Modern China ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 009770042095625
Author(s):  
Jian Lu ◽  
H. Christoph Steinhardt
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Epistemic Communities ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Zero Waste ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
Conditional State ◽  
Environmental Nongovernmental Organizations ◽  
Environmental Ngo ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Alliance Building

Despite the Chinese state’s long-standing wariness of strong horizontal linkages among nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and a deteriorating political climate for civil society activism, cross-regional alliances among NGOs have become a persistent phenomenon in recent years. This article draws on the case of the Zero Waste Alliance—a nationwide coalition of environmental NGOs engaged in waste-related matters—to identify structural conditions that encouraged its emergence and illuminate how alliance builders have interpreted their environment. The article argues that developments internal to the environmental NGO sector (an increased need to pool scarce resources and professional knowledge, a stronger inclination to collaborate among a new generation of NGO leaders, and the formation of epistemic communities), combined with conditional state lenience, have propelled activists to embark on a strategy of alliance building. This case illustrates how the perceived boundary of the permissible shifts when structural conditions incentivize entrepreneurial activists to explore new strategies, and these attempts do not provoke repressive responses. It also highlights that the state has remained conditionally tolerant of boundary-pushing NGO behavior in a sector aligning with its interests, while strengthening political control over civil society.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Xuefei Ren
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Urban Development ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Chinese City ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
China And India ◽  
Historical Comparative ◽  
Alliance Building

This chapter focuses on urban governance in China that exhibits a territorial logic centered on territorial institutions and authorities, such as local governments and officials. It also talks about urban governance in India that features an associational logic and contingent on alliance building among the state, the private sector, and civil society groups. With historical comparative analyses and ethnographic fieldwork, the chapter explains how the territorial and associational approaches to governing cities in China and India are contested and how both approaches have produced new forms of inequality and exclusion. It analyzes the Chinese city by juxtaposing urban development in China with India. It confirms why India is the only other continent-sized country experiencing a similar scale of urbanization to China.

The Right of Return Movement in Syria: Building a Culture of Return, Mobilizing Memories for the Return

2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anaheed Al-Hardan
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Perceived Threat ◽  
Oslo Accords ◽  
Right Of Return ◽  
Future Return ◽  
The Right ◽  
New Generation

The Palestinian Right of Return Movement (RoRM) emerged among diaspora refugee communities following the Oslo accords and the perceived threat to the right of return. This article focuses on the RoRM in Syria in the context of the community's history and unique civil rights there. Based on extensive interviews in the Damascus area, it provides an overview of the heterogeneous movement, which, while requiring state approval, operates in an autonomous civil society sphere. RoRM activists translate visions of the return formulated in the Palestinian national arena into local community practices that mobilize memories of Palestine as resources (through oral history, village commemorations, etc.) with the aim of ensuring a future return by the new generation of refugees.

scholarly journals The 1987 ISA Arrests and International Civil Society: Responses to Political Repression in Singapore

2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-27
Author(s):  
Marc Rerceretnam
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Large Role ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Political Repression ◽  
Political Dissent

The penalizing of prominent opposition figures via the Singaporean legal system has made many weary of confronting the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) government on their own turf. Unwilling to take up this challenge, some Singaporeans appear more willing to push for change overseas – beyond the clutches of the PAP government. This article will trace the development of political dissent from abroad and how such actions played a formidable role during the so-called 'Marxist' conspiracy arrests in 1987 and how such alternative political viewpoints will continue to play a large role in shaping criticism and opposition to the present repressive political climate in Singapore.

scholarly journals Transformation of Swedish CSOs Using the Strengths of Purpose and Empathy

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. p264
Author(s):  
Johanna Hallin ◽  
Nathalie Ahlstedt Mantel
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Appreciative Inquiry ◽  
Target Group ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
The Public ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
New Strategies

Civil society organizations in Sweden are facing new challenges and opportunities in a rapidly changing context. Demographical changes, a new political climate and a broad professionalization of the sector demand a transformational shift in business. In the project Tailwind, four leading CSOs in Sweden develop new strategies and policies to navigate the new landscape. The project explores the question of how these organizations will have to transform to be able to thrive in the future. Using positive psychology and appreciative inquiry as a method for this piece of research, key insights found include: the CSOs need to draw on the strengths of the organization when strategically developing the operations, to build their operations on empathic meetings with the target group, and to step up to claim an expert position in the public eye, sharing knowledge and insight with decision-makers about the needs of the target group.

A Hashtag Revolution in Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Vol 120 (826) ◽  
pp. 183-188
Author(s):  
Ebenezer Obadare
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Police Brutality ◽  
New Generation

Exploding in October 2020 and reverberating internationally, protests against police brutality under the hashtag #EndSARS exposed enduring patterns and emergent trends in Nigerian politics and society. This article examines various elements of the protests to advance hypotheses about the culture of social media, the weakening of old forms of solidarity, and the rise of a new generation of activists steeped in new rules and technologies of civic engagement. #EndSARS marks the possible ascent of an inorganic civil society with profound implications for Nigerian democracy.

The Internet of Things

2020 ◽  
pp. 189-209
Author(s):  
Alison Harcourt ◽  
George Christou ◽  
Seamus Simpson
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Internet Of Things ◽  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
Patent Protection ◽  
Vice President ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Universal Serial Bus ◽  
New Generation ◽  
State Pressure ◽  
The Internet Of Things

Apple iPhones do not use the standardized micro-Universal Serial Bus (USB) port but specialized ports for their proprietary Lightning connectors. However, in October 2018, Apple’s vice-president of hardware engineering John Ternus announced the switch to USB-C for the new generation of iPads from 2019. Apple iPhone is expected to follow suit. This marks the end to a long battle over port standardization for personal computers within the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The change came about due to a push from the European Commission for industry to agree on a universally proprietary free standard. This chapter documents how states have been increasingly involved in steering intellectual property rights (IPR) policies within standards-developing organization (SDO) fora. Civil society too has had a role to play from the stance of open source solutions to interoperability, albeit with less and varying degrees of success across the fora. The chapter focuses on how state pressure has counterbalanced historic corporate pressure for preserving patent protection.

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